...it was the Dutch and the British who set the pattern for racism in North America, South Africa, and Australia. In each of these places, racism gradually gave way to one of its cousins—segregation. At about the same time, racism as a "scientific" theory began to take hold in Europe, particularly in Germany.

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It was the white control of the worship [on slave-holding plantations], the inability to accept blacks as equals, and the negation of black personhood that led to the separation of the black church from the white church and to the emergence of a black religious community."

Independent black churches—most of them Baptist or Methodist—"were not separating themselves from whites because they held a different doctrinal view of Christianity," notes James H. Cone of Union Theological Seminary. "Without exception, blacks used the same articles of faith and polity for their churches as the white denominations from which they separated. Separation, for blacks, meant that . . . they were rejecting racism that was based on the assumption that God created blacks inferior to whites."

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Looking back on this nation's racist history, former member of Congress and Jesuit Father Robert F. Drinan observes, "It is incredible that in a nation with profoundly Christian roots such a thing could have happened."

These are excerpts from a most interesting article on religion and racism. Most African Americans my age have a very clear memory and understanding of how religion was used against us right through the 60s. Even to this day we have the Pat Robinson, Falwell crazed view and the wink and nods from those that still skew their theology to make it alright to pray for President Obama's death and such like things.